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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in England with severe mental illness are registered with a GP; and how many such people had an annual physical health check in each year since 2010.

Alistair Burt

This information is not available in the format requested.

The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is published annually, and includes mental health indicators, which capture information on patients with schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder and other psychoses and other patients on lithium therapy. The information captured does not relate specifically to whether patients have received an ‘annual physical health check’, but does include counts of those patients who have a record of blood pressure, alcohol consumption, or body mass index (BMI).

The relevant indicators are available from the year 2011/12. The data in the table below are snapshots as at 31 March of the reporting year.

Number of patients included in the QOF mental health register with records of blood pressure, BMI and alcohol consumption – England 2011/12 – 2014/15

Year	Register1	BP record2	Alcohol consumption record2	BMI record2
2014/15	500,451	350,751	345,730	..
2013/14	483,933	354,146	337,603	336,373
2012/13	470,971	369,223	356,519	352,501
2011/12	452,608	355,834	335,922	335,652

Notes:

1. For the years 2013/14 and 2014/15, ‘register’ includes all patients with schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder and other psychoses and other patients on lithium therapy. For the years 2011/12 and 2012/13, ‘register’ includes all patients with schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder and other psychoses.

2. Blood pressure record, alcohol consumption record and BMI record include all those patients with schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder and other psychoses who have a record of blood pressure, alcohol consumption and BMI respectively in the preceding 12 months for the years 2013/14 and 2014/15, and in the preceding 15 months for the years 2011/12 and 2012/13.

Due to the changes in the definitions of the register and indicators, the data from 2013/14 onwards are not comparable with data prior to this time.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre do not recommend using the figures provided to calculate percentages, for the following reasons:

― The register for 2013/14 to 2014/15 includes ‘other patients on lithium therapy’, while the blood pressure, alcohol consumption and BMI records do not consider these patients.

― The indicators are published as achievement scores in QOF; the calculation of these proportions includes consideration of exclusions and exceptions as defined in the framework, which are not reflected in the numbers presented here.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether any national guidance has been issued relating to the use of opt in letters sent by health trusts to patients on mental health service waiting lists.

Alistair Burt

Guidance on the use of opt-in letters for patients who are asked to opt-in to adult Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services is published in “Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Waiting Times Guidance and FAQ’s”. This guidance can be found at the following link:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/iapt-wait-times-guid.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the national bed occupancy rate average was for (a) adult and (b) child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric wards in each year since 2010.

Alistair Burt

The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table.

Average daily availability and occupancy rate¹ for consultant-led beds open overnight in the mental health sector, in each quarter from 2010-11

Quarter	Number of available beds open overnight	Occupancy rate
2010-11 Q1	23,515	87.1%
2010-11 Q2	22,929	86.7%
2010-11 Q3	23,740	85.9%
2010-11 Q4	23,607	86.6%
2011-12 Q1	23,253	86.8%
2011-12 Q2	23,208	86.8%
2011-12 Q3	23,016	87.2%
2011-12 Q4	23,121	87.2%
2012-13 Q1	22,550	87.5%
2012-13 Q2	22,269	88.3%
2012-13 Q3	22,496	87.2%
2012-13 Q4	22,268	88.6%
2013-14 Q1	22,109	88.3%
2013-14 Q2	22,025	89.2%
2013-14 Q3	21,931	88.1%
2013-14 Q4	21,731	88.6%
2014-15 Q1	21,750	89.8%
2014-15 Q2	21,618	89.6%
2014-15 Q3	21,446	89.4%
2014-15 Q4	21,374	89.5%
2015-16 Q12	18,569	89.9%
2015-16 Q2	19,249	89.1%
2015-16 Q3	19,273	88.6%

Source: Bed availability and occupancy, NHS England

Notes:

1. Numbers of occupied beds are collected every quarter by consultant main specialty. Numbers of available beds are not collected by consultant specialty, because some beds may be available for more than one specialty to use depending on need. Instead, available beds are collected by four sectors within which beds are used flexibly. These sectors are general and acute, mental health, learning disabilities, and maternity. Occupied bed days by specialty are added to calculate occupancy rates for each of these sectors.
2. In 2015-16 Q1 several mental health providers ceased to submit a return, as a validation of beds data concluded that they were not satisfying the required criteria for consultant-led beds. This is the major factor behind the drop in the number of consultant-led, available mental health beds.